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Gold/Mining/Energy : Precious and Base Metal Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: seventh_son who wrote (33524)	12/22/2004 12:38:30 PM
From: E. Charters	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 39344

For every mine in Mexico these days, there are about one or two lawsuits. This is not new. In Cobalt, Ontario, for every mine in that town, there was at least one lawsuit. (138 in total). This is not an exaggeration. It is actual statistics. We see native land claims, provincial suits (Voisey's Bay), cottager's action to stop Uranium mines (Ontario), and other forms of interference. Community and government litigousness in SA and CA is however a sort of endemic thing. It shocks us, while our domestic problems get a shrug. We expect it. Windy Craggy was "parked" by the NDP, for weak reasons in the 1980's. And compensation for expected return after 50 million investment was non-existent. But recent problems for companies in Honduras, Mexico, Argentina and also legion in the past, are daunting to our sensibilities these days. On one hand for every company with problems it seems another escapes the damoclean sword. We know however of other companies less publicized that have experienced shocking corruption in Mexico, resulting in their losing their ground entirely. The roots of most trouble here and abroad, is who you did not pay. When the money is flying, everyone wants to get involved. Holding things for ransom would not be new. On the other hand, the possibility that the thing is getting painted socially black in the court of public opinion is strong. The row of middle ground is hard to hoe. If you asked me, Chico Mendez was right. Development in SA knows no bounds, and should be subject in many cases where land clearing is rife, to much stricter review. In Brazil they have cut down and desertified about 50% of their rainforest so far. Their animals and plant life is all endangered. The scale of this slash and burn devastation is staggering and the oxygen depletion may very well be contributing to the known and scandalously major depletion of the ozone layer. On the other hand, the scale of a mine here and a mine there is hardly the same thing. Mining is relatively benign when it comes to the environment, despite what some hebephrenic socialismos are led to believe. Pollution in recent years has been brough under adequate control and the total area of surface mines in the world is tiny. Paving over large areas of southern Ontario in the past couple of decades is probably more polluting than all the mines in Canada to date. EC<:-}